Veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson says the West Coast Eagles’ handling of Western Australia’s COVID-19 threat has “frustrated” the AFL.
The Eagles are in a battle to put a team together for their opening-round game against Gold Coast on Sunday, with coach Adam Simpson conceding he has only “25 or 26” players available.
It comes after pair Tim Kelly and Liam Ryan both recently entered COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
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On top of that, a host of the club’s top 22 players are out through injury, with a list that includes Oscar Allen (foot), Jack Darling (foot), Elliot Yeo (calf), Dom Sheed (ankle), Liam Duggan (knee), Jamie Cripps (pectoral) and Luke Shuey (hamstring).
“It’s been a messy pre-season at West Coast,” Wilson told Nine’s Footy Classified.
“The AFL is frustrated that West Coast didn’t really respect how serious this COVID threat was over there and could become. Maybe they didn’t take it seriously enough.”
Those comments caused a reaction on social media among many fans and pundits, which included former Eagles premiership defender Will Schofield, who seemed to poke fun at the suggestion the club wasn’t taking COVID-19 seriously enough.
Wilson said she had no doubts that Darling, who returned to Eagles’ pre-season late due to his refusal to get vaccinated, has since received two COVID-19 jabs and not a medical exemption.
“We know the Jack Darling issues – clearly he has now been jabbed and I think he’s been jabbed twice because he did not get a medical exemption, the AFL wasn’t going to allow that,” Willson added.
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“A medical exemption was never going to happen … no one’s been allowed a medical exemption. That sort of highlighted to me it was a portent of a lot of things going wrong at a footy club where the coach suddenly seems under a huge amount of pressure, the handling of things like the pride jumper and the ensuing excuses really disappointing, some disappointments around AFLW from everyone, including the AFL.”
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